How Does the Dell/EMC Merger Affect the Market for Converged Systems?

Now that the Dell and EMC merger is officially complete, it is time to look at how the deal will affect the market for converged systems. Prior to the merger, there has been a consistent rise in demand for convergence. IDC forecasts overall spending on converged systems to grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 21%, going from $8.2 billion in 2014 to $17.5 billion in 2018.1

Most analyst reports suggest that interest in convergence will increase now that Dell and EMC have combined to form Dell and EMC. IDC, for example, has said that the trend toward convergence was part of the motivation behind the merger. There are several reasons why experts see the merger as leading to a possible expansion of the market for converged solutions. Here are three of them:

Leading-edge technology: Converged and hyper-converged infrastructures have become popular because they do a great job of addressing some of the most significant challenges facing IT departments. Convergence significantly reduces IT complexity and increases productivity, both for IT teams and for end users. Organizations can shorten their purchase cycles and deploy solutions more quickly than ever. And because converged infrastructures unify the management of servers, storage and networking, they can help IT departments address some of their most pressing challenges in hiring and retaining skilled personnel. Moreover, converged infrastructures provide a simple path to the software-defined data center. They have proven to be valuable and versatile in enabling new initiatives such as desktop virtualization and in supporting DevOps teams building new applications and business services.

The combined power of EMC and Dell: Dell and EMC have both been major proponents and innovators in building the convergence market and in delivering innovative solutions to their customers. Their combined efforts will give customers more choice, as well as the advantage of working with a larger sales and support organization. Customers will be able to choose from among VCE Vblock, VxBlock, VxRack Systems and VxRail Appliances (and more) depending on their needs. In addition, the combined engineering and research and development (R&D) teams of Dell and EMC will continue to work on developing innovative solutions for their customers. David Goulden, president of the Infrastructure Group at Dell and EMC, said the combined R&D investment of Dell and EMC was more than $12.7 billion in the last three years and will increase moving forward. It is also worth noting that both Dell and EMC have always been well respected for understanding the needs of business customers, ranging from small and midsize organizations to the largest enterprises.

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A vision for the future:Dell and EMC has articulated a clear vision for IT going forward, and it is clear that converged and hyper-converged infrastructures will play a major role in enabling the company to make that vision a reality. As described in this blog post from Goulden, Dell and EMC envision a three-step approach to digital transformation:

Modernize the infrastructure to deliver the maximum performance and availability as efficiently as possible.

Automate service delivery so that everything in the data center is self-service and frictionless, making the environment more efficient and more reliable.

Transform the operating model and organizational structure of IT. Servers and service levels must be well defined, with total cost transparency. IT should operate entirely as a service provider.

Is your organization ready for convergence? Please visit Dell and EMC at http://www.emc.com/en-us/index.htm to learn how converged infrastructure can help you modernize IT.